Schools which do not abide by the limits suffer a financial penalty — losing half their share of a state funding source for every student above the class size limit.

Those penalties can add up: Broward County schools have lost $9.4 million in funding over the past two years for class size violations, according to state data. Palm Beach and Miami-Dade schools were penalized more than $2 million each over the past two years, while Duval County schools lost more than $1 million.

That money is transferred to schools which abide by class size limits.

Hillsborough County school, for instance, have received an additional $2.3 million over the past two years at the expense of Broward schools and others. Orange County schools received $2.1 million while Pinellas and Polk County schools received more than $1 million each.

TALLAHASSEE -- Lawyers for a group of teachers asked a Leon County judge on Wednesday to throw out a nearly two-year-old state law aimed at tying teacher's pay and evaluations more closely to student performance.